Thursday, June 26, 2014

Adventure of the Seas Day 7 - MDR Dinner & Top Tier Party (Crown and Anchor)

Day 7 MDR Dinner (Sea Day)

Yesterday, we were in Akureyri, Iceland. Tomorrow, we reach Trondheim, Norway. I have not talked much about the Diamond Lounge so far, so this is a good time to start.

We think that the dedicated Diamond Club Lounge (see this post for some videos) and the evening cocktail hours are tremendous perks. On the Adventure of the Seas, the cocktail hours were 5pm to 8:30pm every evening.

As we had early seating (6pm), we would usually make our way to the lounge shortly after 5pm, get some drinks and small bites, before heading over to the MDR. Kids were not allowed during cocktail hours, so our kids would be watching TV in the cabin.

On this evening, I tried the Miller Lite. Nice and light. Not available in the typical Singapore supermarket. In fact, very few light beers available here.

And some savoury bites.

The lounge was very busy during cocktail hours. The good thing was that the food was replenished very quickly. Also, drinks service was pretty quick.

On this cruise, I also discovered the Gin and Tonic. For some reason, I like this basic cocktail very much.

There you go - my drinks at the bar counter. Great stuff.

Main Dining Room - Dinner on Day 7. The inspiration tonight was Portobello.

Starters, main courses and Classics. For the Classics, notice the Beef and Guiness Pie? That item wasn't there yesterday night, it was Irish Pot Pie. The other 3 Classics items, however, were the same.

This looks like the roasted garden salad.

Slow-baked Salmon Fillet - forward view.

Gourmet meatballs.

This was the Salmon starter, view from the aft.

Meatballs (again).

Move on to the mains. The Indian Butter Chicken.

Beef and Veal Tortellacci

Pan-seared sea bass and tiger shrimp.

The beef - Grilled NY Strip Steak.

I mentioned earlier that my kids no longer order from the kid's menu. We make them eat from the adult's menu. We will usually cut up the meat and other good food into smaller pieces and they can eat them from side plates. We also strongly discourage them from taking too much carbs, like fries. We would rather them bulk up on proteins and other good food.

Time for desserts.

What was this? Whatever it was, it tasted really good. hah. This was the low-fat peach melba. Remember, low-fat DOES NOT mean low calories.

Drunken Kalua Cake. It looks drunk, though I didn't get drunk eating it.

Tart. A bit dry, but nice.

Oooh, dessert sampling.

This was good - sugar free mango cream or something like that.

Top Tier Part
This evening, they held the Top Tier Party for Crown and Anchor Platinum and above members in the Lyric Theatre. The band was playing.

I don't know how many Platinum and above C&A members were on board.

The Cruise Director giving a short speech.

Two of the Production Show singers gave us a short performance of several popular songs. It was good.

Hotel Director. Looks like a pretty young chap.

Then the Captain appeared. He congratulated a couple who made it to the Pinnacle Club on this cruise. Captain said that this was a rare event. The last time it happened on his ship, was about 2 years ago. To reach Pinnacle, you need 700 cruise points. That is quite an achievement indeed.

This couple started sailing with RCI only about 10 years ago. So on average, they have clocked 70 cruise points per year, in the last decade. Pretty neat!

I think it was very meaningful for Royal to give recognition on stage to their newly minted Pinnacle Club members. It was a nice touch. It made me want to reach Pinnacle too!

Can Royal please enhance the perks and benefits for Pinnacle members even more?

2 comments
:

Under current Royal Caribbean Crown and Anchor rules, you get one cruise point for every night at sea and double cruise points if you sty in a Junior Suite and above cabin. If the couple stayed in a non-suite cabin, then they would need 70 nights at sea to get 70 points. If they sailed in suites, then 35. It could be a combination.